[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgPtMB7KfLA[/yt]
I love Tom Selleck.
I love Tom Selleck.
Table Manners...WTF?
- Thread starter RoJoHen
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Go for it. It keeps us from having to reach over you to grab all your shit.
Thanks for the explanations Rhubarbodendron and holdfast. Interesting stuff.
Personally, I can't appreciate the switching between hands of knife and fork from cutting to eating, especially if there were hygienic reasons in the past. It's quite easy to use a fork with the left hand, once you've practiced a little. Sometimes I cut with my left hand if it's a soft entree, though (like lasagna).
It's funny how restaurants can misinterpret things or end up making assumptions that aren't in line with the patron's wishes. I had a co-worked who traveled a lot on his own. We were eating out for dinner one night and just before he got up and left, he took a small laminated card out of his wallet and rested it on the edge of his plate. It had "PLEASE DON'T TAKE" printed on it in bold face. When he came back, I ribbed him about it but he said that he never ever had a problem when putting it out (before this he'd find dinner/lunch plates gone fairly often when he'd gone to the bathroom for just a quick break).
I've always thought that as well. There is also the intention of preparation. I've seen a number of people cut up meat before serving it to dogs, so that might also be a reason why it's frowned upon at the dinner table (you're a human, not a dog, so only cut when you intend to take a bite).
Personally, I can't appreciate the switching between hands of knife and fork from cutting to eating, especially if there were hygienic reasons in the past. It's quite easy to use a fork with the left hand, once you've practiced a little. Sometimes I cut with my left hand if it's a soft entree, though (like lasagna).
It's funny how restaurants can misinterpret things or end up making assumptions that aren't in line with the patron's wishes. I had a co-worked who traveled a lot on his own. We were eating out for dinner one night and just before he got up and left, he took a small laminated card out of his wallet and rested it on the edge of his plate. It had "PLEASE DON'T TAKE" printed on it in bold face. When he came back, I ribbed him about it but he said that he never ever had a problem when putting it out (before this he'd find dinner/lunch plates gone fairly often when he'd gone to the bathroom for just a quick break).
I can think of at least a few. A couple were offered in this thread. If you don't think they are sufficient, it's not really a major issue.
There is also no reason why you shouldn't wear your clothes inside out like in Return to the Future part II, for example. I suppose you can do that too if you want. But would you?
I think we should just return to dining in the Roman fashion: lounging on chaises while finely toned slave boys in togas drop bite sized morsels into our mouths.
Add a few cute girls with nothing but their stolae, and we have a deal.
I don't know. Would you be offended if I did? Is it "bad manners" to wear clothes inside out?
While at work today, we got into a random discussion about proper table etiquette -- using the correct utensil for certain types of food...proper place settings...keeping your elbows off the table -- and we all realized we have no idea WHY we do any of these things.
Why is a salad fork a salad fork? Why can't I use my regular dinner fork for both my salad AND my dinner?
Why can't I put my elbows on the table? Why is it considered rude? Do my elbows offend you? Are my elbows somehow dirtier than the rest of my forearm?
Who the hell invented this shit?
The "no elbows" thing I never really understood. I mean... yeah? So what if my elbow is on the table. It's one thing, I guess, if they're intruding on someone's space or they're both on the table and you're all slumped in them. But just one supporting your arm or head as you look and listen intently or rest it for the sake of being tired?
What's wrong with my elbow on the table?!
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hh4M4vipAo[/yt]
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That's something I always do when I go out to eat. Servers are usually pretty busy as it is, I like to make things a little easier for them when possible. I tend to wipe up any mess I might have made on the table, too.
He must mean BACK to the Future, specifically the scene in the second film where Marty is posing as his son and Doc tells him that all teenagers in the future wear their pockets inside out.
nope, in most European contries, movie titles, together with the rest of the movie, get translated into the respective language. Iguana_tonante simply attempted to re-translate the Italian title into English and got remarkably close. Certainly better than your average translation software.
On a completely different topic:
have you noticed that waiters nowadays don't have proper manners either? Even in high class restaurants you get your food served from the right nowadays, though the left would be the proper side. I find it highly annoying when a waiter constantly threatens to spill my drink all over me while serving from the right ( = wrong) side, where the glasses stand.
On a completely different topic:
have you noticed that waiters nowadays don't have proper manners either? Even in high class restaurants you get your food served from the right nowadays, though the left would be the proper side. I find it highly annoying when a waiter constantly threatens to spill my drink all over me while serving from the right ( = wrong) side, where the glasses stand.
I'm not "offended" by bad manners. I just think that people who have bad manners and bad-mannered. I don't think it's an irrational position to take.
Return to the Future?
Sorry, brain fart. Obviously, I meant Back to the Future. In Italian the movie title is translated as Ritorno al Futuro and I mixed them up. Serves me well for typing at 2 in the morning. 
I try to never be offended by bad manners. Bad manners, politically incorrect behavior, difference from the norm, is mostly down to ignorance. And everyone can be ignorant about something, we all were and are and will be. I also hate people who start to ignore someone's arguments because he makes spelling and grammar mistakes, or because of the way he dresses, or speaks, or whatever. That doesn't make his argument invalid. Yet it tells a lot about people who choose to be offended by everything that differs from the norm.
'Back to the Future', would be my guess. Perhaps 'Return' is the Italian title or translation of the Italian? The Iguana got to this. Never mind me, I should read threw these threads before hitting the reply buttons.
One of the reasons for it is to prevent one, especially when cutting food, from shaking the table.
I think it's important to make a distinction between BAD manners - i.e. deliberately acting disgusting at the dinner table - and an absence of overly GOOD ones.
Meaning: Just because you don't observe a hundred meaningless, officious and stuck-up rules when you eat, doesn't mean your manners are bad. Just...realistic.
Meaning: Just because you don't observe a hundred meaningless, officious and stuck-up rules when you eat, doesn't mean your manners are bad. Just...realistic.
^I'm with MLB.
I went to a dinner at a nice restaurant on Friday with a conference group I was with. No black tie or anything that fancy, but slacks and a collared shirt type of place.
If I put an elbow on the table or accidentally used my dinner spoon instead of my soup spoon for the soup course, no one would have given a hoot.
If I got up on the table and took a dump on it, I'm pretty sure everyone would have been pissed.
Just try to be respectful and courteous to your dining party and the waitstaff and you should be fine. If some stuffed shirt has a problem with you eating your salad before the appetizer, fuck him.
I went to a dinner at a nice restaurant on Friday with a conference group I was with. No black tie or anything that fancy, but slacks and a collared shirt type of place.
If I put an elbow on the table or accidentally used my dinner spoon instead of my soup spoon for the soup course, no one would have given a hoot.
If I got up on the table and took a dump on it, I'm pretty sure everyone would have been pissed.
Just try to be respectful and courteous to your dining party and the waitstaff and you should be fine. If some stuffed shirt has a problem with you eating your salad before the appetizer, fuck him.
Just you and me and a few dozen naked slaves, baby.
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